Thursday, April 09, 2009

I have come to the realization that I love worsted-weight yarn. It just provides me with a sort of knitter's equilibrium.

Witness Liesl:

And my February Lady sweater:

Both are top-down; both are simple lace patterns using worsted-weight yarn; both are eminently knittable and relaxing. I think I'll even knit Liesl again, this time using a bit thicker yarn (aran vs worsted, perhaps?) and the recommended 7 mm needles. (US 10.75 which are a bit hard to find.) I fell in love with some dark blue Plymouth Donegal Tweed when I visited a yarn store in Olympia last weekend--they only had one skein and I needed two or three, so I didn't buy it there, but perhaps Webs can do me a solid.

It's an overcast day today, day six of our nine days off...we spent the morning out in the yard building an eight-foot fence around the garden (we have deer) and planting some of the pea seedlings M started in the kitchen last week. In the garage I have a dresser to finish refinishing--I'm on the home stretch, since I did the 2nd coat of poly yesterday--just the final buff with the steel wool and the drawer pulls to install. (I won't mention that I started this project in August. Oh wait, I just did.)

I love these sorts of quiet slow days, full of projects and Harry Potter playing on the iPod in the kitchen. We all orbit slowly about the house, our own little solar system of a family finding the staycation groove.

I'm not going to think about the 9 weeks grades that are due on Monday, or the conference I'm leaving for on Thursday morning, or the re-written Catcher in the Rye essays that are coming my way Sunday night...for now I'm just thinking about a peaceful quiet cloudy Thursday.